Binary relay



P 9 31958 E. E. REYNOLDS 2,83,236

BINARY RELAY Original Filed Oct. 24, 1949 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR Ewe 1e E Reyna/J9.

will 8, 19 E. E. REYNOLDS BINARY RELAY 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed Oct. 24, 1949 INVENTOR Eugene E. Eayno/ds.

BINARY RELAY Eugene E. Reynolds, Richmond, Califi, assignor to Mairchant (laiculators, Inc., a corporation of California Original application ()ctober 24, 1949, Serial No. 123,231,

now Patent No. 2,713,456, dated July 1?, 1955. Divided and this application November 8, 1954, Serial No. 467,517

8 Claims. (Cl. 317-189) The invention relates to signal retention devices, and more particularly to relays which inherently operate in the binary system.

This application is a division of the United States patent application Serial Number 123,231, filed October 24, 1949, issued as Patent No. 2,713,456 on July 19, 1955, which discloses and claims a machine for translating binary values to decimal values.

There are a number of relays that have been developed which operate in a binary manner by using two coils. Obviously, such relays are limited in their applications and cannot be employed directly in a circuit where binary information is transmitted as signals on a single lead.

Applicant has discovered that it is possible to construct a single-coil binary relay having only one input lead for the coil. For example, the relay may be provided with a split armature, or two armatures, such that in response to a first pulse applied to the coil, both armatures are attracted to the coil. A first one of the armatures cooperates with a latch which retains the first armature in its attracted, or operated position, the latch being enabled by operation of the second armature. Upon termination of the first pulse, the second armature is returned to its unoperated position, the enabled latch retaining the first armature in its operated position.

Means may be provided for preventing the second armature from operating in response to a second pulse applied to the coil, and for disabling the latch in response to the second pulse, so that upon termination of the second pulse, the first armature is returned to its unoperated position. Thus, in response to each two pulses applied to a single input lead, the relay completes a full cycle of operation in which it alternately assumes each of two non-power stable conditions, and the completion of this cycle is independent of the duration of either input pulse. By employing each of a series of such relays to operate a suitable set of switches, and by connecting the relays in cascade through said switches, a binary counting register may be formed.

It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a relay which operates in a binary manner and which has only one coil and only one signal input lead for said coil.

It is a further object to provide a single-coil relay having two stable non-power states of operation.

Further objects of the invention are:

To provide a single-coil relay having two stable states of operation which are assumed alternately in response to receipt by said coil of successive signals;

To provide an improved binary relay;

To provide a relay having two armatures and a single coil with means whereby: (1) in response to a first pulse having applied to the coil, both armatures are moved to respective operated positions; (2) at the termination of the first pulse, one and only one of the armatures is rerained inits operated position; and (3) in response to the termination of a second pulse applied to the coil, the

"2,830,236 Patented Apr. 8, 1958 armature previously retained in its operated position is returned to its unoperated position; and

To operate both of two relay armatures by means of a single coil in response to a first pulse applied to said coil; to retain one and only one of said armatures in its operated position at the termination of said first pulse;

to shunt through said retained armature substantially all of the magnetic flux resulting from a second pulse applied to said coil; and to release said retained armature in response to termination of said second pulse.

The underlying principle of the present invention is therefore the operation of two armatures by a single coil in response to a first pulse applied to the coil, the latching of one armature in its operated position, and the shunting of substantially all the flux, resulting from a second pulse, of

Fig. 3 is a sectional top view ofthe relay, taken along the line IIIIII in Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a lock member for the relay;

Figs. 5, 6, and 7 are left side views of the relay, showin various operating positions of its armatures; and

Figs. 8, 9, 10, and 11 are front views of the relay and some or all of its contacts, showing various operating positions of the armatures and contacts.

The relay is devised so that each input pulse reverses the relay condition from one non-power state to another which indicates a reversal of value from 0 to 1 or vice versa, and through this provision it is possible to accumulate binary words in groups of relays or to add binary words so that the cumulative result represents the binary word.

The relay comprises a pair of frame members 14 and 16 (Fig. 1), each terminating in a respective pole face 17 and 18. A housing 20 is secured between members 14 and 16 and encloses a coil 22. Member 14 carries a mounting 24 provided with a shaft 26 serving as the pivotal support for a large or main armature 28 and a small or control armature 30. Each armature is spring urged counterclockwise (as viewed in Fig. 1) about shaft 26. A Inultilayered stack 32 of insulation elements carried by member 14 has embedded therein a pivot support 34- for a latch 36 having a substantially arcuate end 38. Latch 36 is spring urged in a counterclockwise direction about its pivot. The control armature 30 has secured thereto a finger 40 extending from the forward edge, and an arm 42 extending over latch 36 and over the main armature 28. The main armature 28 has secured to the forward edge thereof a finger 44 serving as a catch for the end 38 of latch 36. The stack 32 has embedded therein two movable flat spring arms 48 and 52. Arm 48 is located above the main armature 28 and has its free end secured to a tie strip 54 connected to the free end of finger 44-. Therefore, arm 48 moves up and down in unison with the main armature 28, and this arm is provided with a contact 62. Arm 52, which is located above the control armature 30 has its free end secured to a tie strip 66 which in turn is connected to the free end of figure 4t). Therefore, arm 52 moves up and down in unison with armature 30, and this arm is provided with a contact 68. The stack of insulation elements 32 has embedded therein two relatively fixed arms 74 and 76 located above the main armature 28,:and two similar arms 82 and 84 located above the control armature 30. Each 3 of these arms is provided with a contact, as shown in cooperative relation with contacts 62 and 68 that are carried by the movable arms 48 and 52.

The relay arms are electrically connected in the following manner: an input lead 83 (Figs. 1 and 8) is connected through the relay coil 22 to arm 48; arms 76 and 52 are connected in series; arms 74 and 84 are connected in series; and arm 84 is connected to ground by a lead 85; and arm 82 is connected to an output lead 83 which constitutes the input lead for a next successive relay in the bank.

When the armatures and contacts of a relay are in the positions shown in Figs. 1 and 8, the relay is in a condition, which is one of two stable non-power conditions of the relay. When the relay is in the 0 condition, a circuit is completed from input lead 83 through coil 22, arm 48, contact 62, arm 74, arm 84, and lead 85 to ground. A pulse applied to input lead 83 energizes coil 22, and armatures 28 and 30 are brought into engagement with pole face 18. This action causes the armature fingers 40 and 44 (Figs. 1 to 3) to pull tie strips 54 and 56 downwardly, thereby bringing contacts 62 and 68, that are carried by the movable arms 48 and 52, respectively, to the positions shown in Fig. 10. During this movement, the contacts pass through the intermediate positions shown in Fig. 9, wherein it will be noted that arm 74, which is more flexible than the other relatively fixed arms, has followed arm 48 for a portion of the downward movement of the latter to maintain electrical contact therewith, thus maintaining the coil circuit connected to ground through the input lead 83 and arms 48, 74, and 84.

During the downward movement of the two armatures the arm 42 attached to the control armature 30 over powers the spring which urges the latch 36 in the counterclockwise direction. The arm 42 carries the latch 36 downward to a latching position where the end portion 38 of the latch 36 is positioned immediately behind the rear portion of the finger 44.

The armatures 28 and 30 remain in engagement with the pole face 18 (Fig. for the duration of the input pulse, and at the end of the pulse both armatures are spring urged away from the pole face. Due to the fact that latch 36 and armature 28 are pivoted about different centers, the latch end 38, which is in engagement with finger 44 after slight upward movement of armature 28, prevents further upward movement of finger 44, and finger 44 in turn prevents further upward pivotal movement of latch 36. It will be apparent that the respective restoring springs for the main armature 28 and the latch 36 may be chosen such that armature 28 rises more rapidly than latch 36. This will ensure an engagement between the latch end 38 and the lefthand edge of finger 44 for blocking further upward movement of both of these elements. The result is that armature 28 is locked in the position shown in Fig. 6, while control armature 30 is free to move upwardly to its original position.

The position of the armatures and contacts shown in Figs. 6 and 11 represents the second of two possible stable non-power conditions arbitrarily designated as the 1 condition of the relay. Arm 76 is slightly yieldable upwardly to maintain contact with movable arm 48 upon the limited upward movement of arm 48, caused by movement of armature 28 from its position shown in Fig. 5 to its position shown in Fig. 6. When the relay is in the 1 condition shown in Fig. 11, the contacts are conditioned to receive a neXt input pulse and transmit it to the coil of the next higher order relay through the following circuit: from lead 83 of the next lower order, the coil 22, arm 48, arm 76, arm 52, arm 82, and lead 83 to the next higher order.

When a value pulse is introduced into a relay which stands in the 1 condition described, the relay is restored to its 0 condition in accordance with binary addition, and a carry of l is entered into the next higher order as follows. The pulse energizes coil 22 to magnetize the pole face 18, but since armature 28 is both closer to the pole face than control armature 30 and larger than the control armature, it becomes a shunt path for most of the magnetic flux with the result that the control armature, which was fully restored in the relays 1 condition, is not drawn into contact with the pole face. The slight downward movement of armature 28 into full engagement with pole face 18, releases latch 36 from engagement with finger 44, and the latch thereupon is moved upwardly by its pivot spring to engage arm 42. At the end of the pulse, armature 28 is spring restored to its position shown in Fig. l, and the arms 48 and 52 are restored to their respective 0 positions, as shown in Fig. 8.

As an auxiliary safeguard to insure against operation of the control armature 30 upon the input of a value pulse to the relay when it is in the 1 condition shown in Fig. 6, there has been provided a safety lock 87 shown in perspective in Fig. 4. The lock 87 is provided with a pair of rigidly interconnected arcuate arms 89 and 91, arm 89 being provided at its upper end with a locking notch 93. The lower end of arm 89 is pivotally secured to a stud 94 (Fig. 1) and spring means (not shown) are rovided to urge the lock member 87 in a counterclockwise direction, as viewed in Fig. 1, to bring the upper end of arm 91 into engagement with the end of armature finger 44. When the relay is energized, finger 44 cams member 87 to the right to allow downward passage of armature fingers 40 and 44. When the armatures are in the positions shown in Fig. 5, the tips of arms 89 and 91 are overlying the respective fingers 40 and 44. Thereafter, as the control armature 30 moves upwardly to the position shown in Fig. 6, member 87 is cammed outwardly by finger 40 until the end of the latter finger snaps into locking notch 93. The engagement of 40 with notch 93 insures against downward movement of the control armature upon the entry into the relay coil of the next value pulse. It will be noted that the inside face of arm 91 has a slight indentation 95 on its inner edge. This indentation is adapted to receive the tip of finger 44, and prevents outward camming of member 87 during the slight movement of finger 44 from the position shown in Fig. 6 to the position shown in Fig. 7.

r Upon the full upward movement of armature 28 at the end of each even-numbered value pulse, finger 44 cams member 87 to the right to allow the armatures to reach their respective 0 positions shown in Fig. 1.

It Will thus be seen that a first value pulse latches the main armature of a relay in its 1 position and a second value pulse unlatches the armature and restores the relay to its 0 condition. Thus, in a group of relays, the relays not only indicate 0 and l for each binary order, but they also accumulate binary words, and upon conclusion of the input operation, the armature positions represent the cumulative input of binary words. For example, if the first, second, third, and fourth relays of a group all stand in the 1 condition, and the fifth relay stands in the 0 condition, they represent the binary word 01111, and the contacts of each of the first four relays are in the positions shown in Fig. 11. In such case, a series circuit is completed from input lead 83 of the lowest order relay through each of the first four relays by way of the respective arms 48, 76, 52 and 82, to the input lead 83 of the next relay. The contacts of the fifth relay are in the positions shown in Fig. 8, a circuit being completed from the input lead 83 through arms 48, 74 and 84 to ground. An input pulse applied to the first relay passes through coil 22 of each of the first five relays then to ground, and reverses each of the first four relays from its 1 condition to its 0 condition, and the fifth relay from its 0 condition to its 1 condition, thereby indicating the new binary word 10000.

The invention claimed is:

1. A binary relay comprising: a single coil having an input lead and an output lead; a main armature adapted for cooperation with said coil and normally in an unoperated position; a control armature adapted for cooperation with said coil and normally in an unoperated position; means for applying first and second pulses to said input lead; means operable, in response to said first pulse, for moving both the main armature and the control armature to respective operated positions; means operable, in response to the movement of the control armature to its operated position, for retaining the main armature in its operated position; means operable, in response to the termination of said first pulse, for returning said control armature to its unoperated position; and means controlled by said main armature and operable, in response to said second pulse, for disabling said retaining means.

2. A binary relaycomprising: a single coil having an input lead and an output lead; a main armature adapted for cooperation with said coil and normally in an unoperated position; a control armature adapted for cooperation With said coil and normally in an unoperated position; means for applying first and second pulses to said input lead; means operable, in response to said first pulse, for moving both the main armature and the control armature to respective operated positions; a latch; means operable, in response to the movement of the control armature to its operated position, for setting said latch to retain the main armature in its operated position; means operable, in response to the termination of said first pulse, for returning said control armature to its unoperated position; means controlled by said main armature and operable, in response to said second pulse, for disabling said latch; and means operable, upon the disabling of said latch, for returning the main armature to its unoperated position.

3. A binary relay comprising: a single coil having an input lead and an output lead; a main armature adapted for cooperation with said coil and normally in an unoperated position; a control armature adapted for cooperation with said coil and normally in an unoperated position; means for applying first and second pulses to said input lead; means operable, in response to said first pulse, for moving both the main armature and the control armature to respective operated positions; means operable, in response to the movement of the control armature to its operated position, for retaining the main armature in its operated position; means operable, in response to the termination of said first pulse, for returning said control armature to its unoperated position; means controlled by said main armature and operable, in response to said second pulse, for disabling said retaining means; and means controlled by said main armature ifor preventing said second pulse from moving said control armature to its operated position.

4. A binary relay comprising: a single coil having an input lead and an output lead; a main armature adapted for cooperation with said coil and normally in an unoperated position; a control armature adapted for cooperation with said coil and normally in an unoperated position; means for applying first and second pulses to said input lead; means operable in response to said first pulse, for moving both the main armature and the control armature to respective operated positions; a latch; means operable in response to the movement of the control armature to its operated position, for setting said latch to retain the main armature in its operated position; means operable, in response to the termination of said first pulse, for returning said control armature to its unoperated position; means controlled by said main armature and operable, in response to said second pulse, for disabling said latch; means operable, upon the disabling of said latch, for returning the main armature to its unoperated position; and means controlled by said main armature for preventing said second pulse from moving said control armature to its operated position.

5. An electromagnetic device comprising: a single coil; means for causing a first and a second energization of said coil; a control armature responsive to said first energization of the coil to move from a stable non-power position to an operated position and to return to said initial position upon termination of said first energization of the coil; a main armature responsive to said first energization of the coil to move from a first stable non-power position to a second stable non-power position; means conditioned by said control armature in response to movement of said armatures to their respective operated and second non-power positions for retaining said main armature in its second non-power position subsequent to termination of said first energization of the coil; means operable by the main armature, in response to said second energization of the coil, for disabling said retaining means; and means including said main armature for preventing said control armature from moving in response to said second energization of the coil.

6. A binary relay comprising: a single coil having an input lead and an output lead; a main armature pivotally mounted and adapted for cooperation with said coil and normally in an unoperated position; a control armature pivotally mounted in side-by-side relationship with said main armature and adapted for cooperation with said coil, said control armature being normally in an unoperated position; an arm rigidly mounted on said control armature; a latch pivotally mounted on a nonmovable portion of said relay and carried by said arm; means for applying first and second pulses to said input lead; means operable, in response to said first pulse, for moving both the main armature and the control armature to respective operated positions; a finger rigidly mounted on said main armature for engaging said latch, in response to the termination of said first pulse; means operable, in response to the termination of said first pulse, for returning said control armature to its unoperated position; means controlled by said main armature and operable, in response to said second pulse, for disabling said latch; means controlled by said main armature to cause said second pulse to be ineffective to move said control armature to its operated position; and means operable, in response to the termination of said second pulse, for returning said main armature to its unoperated position.

7. A relay comprising: a support member; a pole face; first and second armatures carried for pivotal movement by said support member and having their forward ends extending over said pole-face in normal lateral alignment, said first armature having a larger area extending over said pole-face than said second armature; means associated with said armatures to yieldingly maintain said armature ends away from said pole-face; electric means associated with said pole-face and adapted upon receipt of an electric pulse to magnetize said pole-face for bringing said armature ends into engagement therewith; latching means associated with said firstarmature and located forwardly of the pivotal axis thereof; said latching means comprising an abutment protruding above the upper surface of said armature, an arm located above said first armature in alignment with said abutment and mounted for pivotal movement about an axis parallel to and above the axis of pivot of said first armature, and a member carried by said second armature and extending over said arm and adapted upon downward movement of said second armature to urge said arm downwardly to bring a portion thereof into juxtaposition with said abutment whereby, upon the de-energization of said poleface and limited movement upwardly of said first armature, said arm portion and said abutment mutually inhibit the restoration of the arm and first armature to the normal raised position, said arm being freed for restorative movement upon the movement of said first armature into engagement with said pole-face under the action of a second pulse.

8. A relay comprising, a support member; a pole face; first and second armatures pivoted to said support member and having their forward ends extending over said pole-face in normal lateral alignment, there being a larger portion of said first armature extending over said pole-face than said second armature; electromagnetic means operable upon receipt of an energizing pulse to magnetize said pole-face and attract said armatures; means for applying first and second energizing pulses to said electromagnetic means; a latch; means operable in response to the movement of the second armature to its operated position, for setting said latch to retain the first armature in its operated position; means operable in response to the termination of said first pulse for returning said second armature to its unoperated position; means controlled by said first armature and oper- 8 able in response to said second pulse for disabling of said latch; and means operable upon the disabling of said latch for returning the first armature to its unoperated position.

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